Wishes From the Construction Team for 2015

Santa, being the magical creature that he is, can carry an amazing assortment of oddly shaped gifts in his sack. Even though his bag gets pretty crowded with toys, there is a little room for wishes from some of us older kids. During this holiday season, when we say “Happy New Year,” it also means “Happy New Hospital,” because Shawano Medical Center will become ThedaCare Medical Center-Shawano in September 2015. With this in mind, the ThedaCare/Shawano Medical Center construction team had a few items that they would like to see in their stockings this year.

(They have all committed to remaining on Santa’s “good” list, because the new hospital is a LEED-Certified energy-efficient building, and no one wants to see coal in their stocking!)

Jodi Zimmerman, surgery manager, would like to see a safe move for patients and staff.

Anticipating the details that will have to be tended to as two buildings become one, Megan Ehlert, dietary supervisor, would like Santa to pack lots of laughter to keep in reserve for the week of the move.

Matt Peterson, project manager, would like to see an early spring, to give his crews a jump start on the site work.

Speaking of weather, our facilities department got one of its presents early. Tony Jagla, plant operations manager, had a request already approved for controls that will bring the combined hospital and clinic buildings together in one heating and cooling system. That will make it much easier to manage the indoor weather.

Dorothy Erdmann, SMC president and project sponsor, wishes for “All our construction workers to stay safe without injury, and our staff to remember the move as a very special event that brought us together as one.”

Finally, in my stocking I’d like to find a time machine – something that will let us go 10, 50 or 80 years into the future, to see if we were able to create a medical center that was adaptable for whatever medicine in the future will become. If our vision was correct, and it helps foster a healthy community, we might meet ourselves there as well.